Overall Rating:
Score: 6.2/10
Grade: C
Family-Friendliness Scale: Level 3 (OK)
Kids ages 10+
Survival is both a good and bad story...
Pi is an India-born person who has a story to tell. Recounting his dramatic survival tale to author Yann Martel, he tells of the shipwreck that killed his family and how he was left on a lifeboat with just a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
Positive Notes
Life of Pi underscores the importance of faith and courage. Pi's faith in God is tested through these unfortunate series of events, and he later asks, "What more do you want?!" Its' a relatively powerful scene during a storm that lets us all know of the tried times we go through, but what we don't know, is that God is using those events to test our faith in Him. Pi's journey is a basic example of that. In all of his efforts, Pi learns to have true courage in the face of obstacles, including the tiger who wants to eat him (for a time).
The cinematography is beautiful, with brilliant special effects and breathtaking scenery. The foreign cast does a nice job.
Negative Notes
Pi may have a faith-based center, but unfortunately, its' unclear which faith is at its' center. At the beginning, Pi does become a Christian, but later thanks a Hindu god for coming to know Christ. He also is seen briefly doing similar prayer rituals to Muslims, and he quotes "Allah" once. Some scary/perilous scenes may frighten sensitive/younger moviegoers. The movie carries a whole bunch of saddening moments which may cause some tears. Pi's full name is Piscine, and students and teachers mispronounce it to make it sound like the p-word. Pi urinates to mark his territory, but is later blasted by a tiger's own urine. Pi also lies to Japanese reporters, telling a different story that is both heartbreaking and depressing.
As for technical issues, I do think the movie could've been shorter.
Conclusion
Based on the acclaim its' been getting, I was thinking Life of Pi was going to be a heartfelt and exciting survival tale that would be accessible to family and mainstream audiences (like Hugo was last year). And the movie certainly has the amazing cinematography and special effects to make it an Oscar contender. Plus, there's no adult content, drugs or toilet humor to complain about. So, I guess Ang Lee does deserve a tip of the hat for keeping this pretty clean.
But despite having good production values, by the time I walked out of the theater, I felt like I didn't want to watch it again. And there's good reasons for that. The beginning of the movie relies a bit too much on religious overlappings, further questioning Pi's stance on his faith in God. Plus, the shipwreck scenes and surprising moments when the tiger jumps out, while nicely done, can be scary at times.
Life of Pi also serves one of its' PG-rating reasons well, "emotional thematic content throughout". That's because there's plenty of overly-saccharine and tear-jerking moments. My grandmother described the movie as an "emotional drainer", and based on what I saw, that is a near-perfect description. Plus, it seemed like the movie was a bit too long, as it was slow-paced at times and the 130-minute running time may have allowed it to take too much time to get its' point across.
Now, it isn't a terrible film. Again, the cinematography and special effects, excellent. The story is also nice. But its' the scary action sequences, often too sad moments, and religious question marks that make it not appropriate for young children. Summarizing it, Life of Pi is visually wonderful, but morally confusing.
